Safe boating on Grand Lake

1. What is the role of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary at Grand Lake?

In very short terms, the role is boating safety. We try to help the public enjoy the boating sport, if you will, which, by the way, is not a particularly dangerous sport. It's one of the safer sports but still there are hazards and our job is to help people enjoy their time on the water safely. We do that with boating safety classes which we teach and we do that by having safety patrols on the lake. Then we have in addition to that when you have fireworks we have an event patrol or when you have the races down here we'll have Coast Guard Auxiliary boats out there protecting the perimeter, keeping the wake down, which is very important to those people.

2. What kind of need is there for new auxiliary members here at Grand Lake?

We have need for that. Our problem here has been a shrinking resource, partially aging, some people getting ill, some people changing jobs. We have a shrinking resource and a growing need. A bigger need and less people to do it with. We know there are people out there, we're perfectly sure there are people out there because there are guys like us who would be interested in doing this. They don't know we're here and they don't know there's a need. So, we're very interested in reaching the public in understanding there's a job here to be done. We are boating safety experts. We need some people who love to boat. We would love to get some younger people who love to boat.

3. How often are auxiliary members on the water here?

Maybe once a week, if that often, these days. There should be an auxiliary boat on this lake every Friday afternoon, every Saturday, every Sunday. At least one should be out here on the water every week. Now, they're volunteers, everybody can't be here every week. That means you have to have a resource that is substantially in excess of what you have on the water. You can't have three boats available and say you're going to have three boats out here three different days on the water and make that work. You have to have more than that, substantially more than that. We need to build back up to that. There was a time when we pretty much had that but we need to build back up to that. We haven't had that in some years.

4. On a typical outing what kind of interactions do auxiliary members have with folks on the lake?

The biggest one is pulling people in when they have power problems. That's the biggest single thing we do is pulling people in and getting them out of the water. Getting off the water in a storm situation. I don't know if you know this lake but, boy, this lake can get mean quick. It's shallow and there's no banks and that wind comes out of the west and this lake whips up and gets really mean. Our guys have to help get people off the water. We have had boats on fire. We're not firemen, we can't put fires out. Basically, our idea is jump in the water. I don't want to come alongside a boat that's on fire, the darn thing might blow up. Jump in the water, I'll pull you out of the water. People do hit things. We have obstructions in the lake. Almost anything you can think of. We see people running with their lights out we'll talk to them about getting their lights fixed. We don't ticket anyone but we will talk with them about operating safely.

5. If someone is interested in getting involved what all is involved?

The first thing is you need to contact us. The next thing that has to be done is believe it or not you have to have a little security clearance, have a background check. You have to be 17 years old. There's no upper end limit, as you can tell. You have to be 17 years old, hear thunder, see lightning, and smell skunks and you're in, pretty much. We'll provide the training from then on that you need.

6. The big regatta event is coming up in a couple of weeks. What kind of role does the auxiliary provide during that annual event?

We will provide the screen patrol. We will keep boats from getting into the race course, which is obviously desirable. And the other thing is those boats are very sensitive to waves and wake. Boat wake coming in can literally flip one of those boats over. We have a big no wake zone set up by the park and we will be policing that no wake zone to keep people from making wake. You'll never see one of our boats go speeding off across the lake. Our boats are in no wake mode, which means they are running 2 mph or 3 mph. You can walk as fast as our boats will be going.